At last weekend's Texas Zone Area Tournament (ZAT) 12 boys, I saw some appalling behavior from the junior that leads me to ask - Why does tennis bring out the worst in people?
1) 3 different kids crying, sobbing, after losing an early-round match.
2) Parents coaching from the stands against the rules. One dad was yelling at the opponent, an 11yr old boy, for calling a ball out after 2 rallies had passed. The opponent broke down, sat on the court and cried while his kid just stood around. Went on for 10mins until he regained his composure and continued. The yelling dad was unapologetic.
3) Kid arguing with the official about a line call. I saw it was clearly in by 1 foot, kid kept arguing was out. Official stood his ground. Kid lost the match 2 point later and cussed out the official in spanish, shook his fist and stormed off the court. His dad patted him on the back.
4) Dads standing behind the back fence secretly coaching their kids.

At last weekend's Texas Zone Area Tournament (ZAT) 12 boys, I saw some appalling behavior from the junior that leads me to ask - Why does tennis bring out the worst in people?
1) 3 different kids crying, sobbing, after losing an early-round match.
2) Parents coaching from the stands against the rules. One dad was yelling at the opponent, an 11yr old boy, for calling a ball out after 2 rallies had passed. The opponent broke down, sat on the court and cried while his kid just stood around. Went on for 10mins until he regained his composure and continued. The yelling dad was unapologetic.
3) Kid arguing with the official about a line call. I saw it was clearly in by 1 foot, kid kept arguing was out. Official stood his ground. Kid lost the match 2 point later and cussed out the official in spanish, shook his fist and stormed off the court. His dad patted him on the back.
4) Dads standing behind the back fence secretly coaching their kids.

Parents.... what are you teaching your kids?

Do not be surprised. It looks like you are beginner tennis parent. Cheating in junior tennis is a huge problem around the world.
Just teach your kid be honest and play with confidence.

1 is not awful behavior, just disappointment. Federer cried in public after losing to Nadal in the AO, and after losing to Blake in the Olympics singles. Vera Zvonereva was known for crying in her early days.

2 is first the kid's fault for calling a ball out after two more shots had been played. He cannot do that, and someone has to tell him it is not acceptable. But shouting at the kid is not acceptable, but would the kid have retracted otherwise?

3 It is OK to challenge an official's call - pros do it all the time. That is why Hawk-Eye was invented. Keeps the official honest. Rest of the behavior is not acceptable.

Sorry to tell you this, Woolybugger, but what you describe as appalling is just a day at the office - particularly at the higher level tournaments. Sadly, the four items you listed are EXTREMELY COMMON. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes - way, way, way too many times.

At last weekend's Texas Zone Area Tournament (ZAT) 12 boys, I saw some appalling behavior from the junior that leads me to ask - Why does tennis bring out the worst in people?
1) 3 different kids crying, sobbing, after losing an early-round match.
2) Parents coaching from the stands against the rules. One dad was yelling at the opponent, an 11yr old boy, for calling a ball out after 2 rallies had passed. The opponent broke down, sat on the court and cried while his kid just stood around. Went on for 10mins until he regained his composure and continued. The yelling dad was unapologetic.
3) Kid arguing with the official about a line call. I saw it was clearly in by 1 foot, kid kept arguing was out. Official stood his ground. Kid lost the match 2 point later and cussed out the official in spanish, shook his fist and stormed off the court. His dad patted him on the back.
4) Dads standing behind the back fence secretly coaching their kids.

Crying, being emotional and acting up is part of being a kid. They are not to blame. It's the parents that we should be worried about. Bad behavior by parents shouldn't be tolerated - by other parents, TD's, or the USTA. Shouldn't be... but it is. Don't expect it to change.

__________________
"More Sureshs, less Maxima for a better TT." - Power Player

At last weekend's Texas Zone Area Tournament (ZAT) 12 boys, I saw some appalling behavior from the junior that leads me to ask - Why does tennis bring out the worst in people?
1) 3 different kids crying, sobbing, after losing an early-round match.
2) Parents coaching from the stands against the rules. One dad was yelling at the opponent, an 11yr old boy, for calling a ball out after 2 rallies had passed. The opponent broke down, sat on the court and cried while his kid just stood around. Went on for 10mins until he regained his composure and continued. The yelling dad was unapologetic.
3) Kid arguing with the official about a line call. I saw it was clearly in by 1 foot, kid kept arguing was out. Official stood his ground. Kid lost the match 2 point later and cussed out the official in spanish, shook his fist and stormed off the court. His dad patted him on the back.
4) Dads standing behind the back fence secretly coaching their kids.

Parents.... what are you teaching your kids?

I assume this is one of your child's and your first tournaments? Well I'm also in Texas but in supers. Let me tell you know, it's a lot worse in supers. You WOULDN'T want to know details haha

Kids are going to behave as poorly as their parents will allow. Officials need to pull the trigger on warnings and point penalties much earlier and not try to talk so much to the kids because then the kids feel like they can talk their way out of situations. If a parent becomes involved in a match verbally the kid receives a warning or point penalty. This will keep things under control most of the time.

Kids are going to behave as poorly as their parents will allow. Officials need to pull the trigger on warnings and point penalties much earlier and not try to talk so much to the kids because then the kids feel like they can talk their way out of situations. If a parent becomes involved in a match verbally the kid receives a warning or point penalty. This will keep things under control most of the time.

Yes, my kids are new to competitive tennis and I'm beginning to see that tennis is very adversarial, dog-eat-dog, win at all costs. No wonder there's so much cheating, bad behavior and mind games. It starts when young and goes all the way to the pros, and vice versa - kids pick up what the pros do and think it is cool to throw tantrums, smash racquets and yell at umpires.

Many of you say the bad behavior is common, and is even worse than what I've witnessed. Question to you is - will you perpetuate the normal or go against the crowd and do the right thing? Why can't players treat each other with respect and consideration while still playing their best tennis? Does common decency and manners get left on the sidelines during the game?

Parents and coaches just have to hold the kids accountable for their actions and emphasize winning or losing with dignity and class. Until everyone is united on that, there will be jerks at every tournament.

Parents and coaches just have to hold the kids accountable for their actions and emphasize winning or losing with dignity and class. Until everyone is united on that, there will be jerks at every tournament.

It's been my experience that cheating stems from bad parents/academy/coaches.

Really sad to see college kids cheat, I mean they are now adults, no excuse for that behavior.

Parents and coaches just have to hold the kids accountable for their actions and emphasize winning or losing with dignity and class. Until everyone is united on that, there will be jerks at every tournament.

Yes, my kids are new to competitive tennis and I'm beginning to see that tennis is very adversarial, dog-eat-dog, win at all costs. No wonder there's so much cheating, bad behavior and mind games. It starts when young and goes all the way to the pros, and vice versa - kids pick up what the pros do and think it is cool to throw tantrums, smash racquets and yell at umpires.

Many of you say the bad behavior is common, and is even worse than what I've witnessed. Question to you is - will you perpetuate the normal or go against the crowd and do the right thing? Why can't players treat each other with respect and consideration while still playing their best tennis? Does common decency and manners get left on the sidelines during the game?

I played as a junior, and am now a grad student. So, I've been in matches in the juniors where the behavior was simply diabolical. The other posters are right. You're going to get more childish behavior in the 12s and 14s. Once you get into the 16s, you'll see that the kids start to get a bit more feisty. Once you're in the 18s, truly anything is possible. I've seen thrown chairs, broken net straps, verbal abuse...at the audience, racquets thrown into trees (although the kid's parent whom I still know made him go into the site's facilities, request a ladder and go get it himself before he played another point. Gave props for that one), and any kind of cheating you can imagine.

You know the "if you can't agree on the score, go back to the score you both recall" rule? Yeah, server is up 30-0 having served two aces, hits an unreturnable serve for 40-0. Opponent calls out 40-30 just prior to the serve. Official is called. I'm on the next court having just won my game. My opponent, who is a fantastic guy who I still hit with whenever I'm at home, just stare in amazement as after 10mins of deliberations, they start the game over at 0-0. Server's parents are in uproar, returner's parents are siding with their kid. Server loses the game 0-40, but luckily wins the match since the official is now watching.

The point of my story is this: you cannot change your opponents' behavior. You can change your kid's behavior. You teach him and instill in him values of respect and sportsmanship above all else. If there are two cheating calls, let the first go with a stare to show you know it was a bad call. Question the second. Official on the third. Cheaters crack once called on their mistakes by an official watching. You simply need to enforce those tools at your disposal because as you said: it's ugly out there. It isn't this bad in college tennis, although I have seen some pretty petty behavior. I'm sad to say that it usually stems from their junior experiences. Luckily, our guys are great and don't pull this kind of nonsense...probably because the coach is massive and could twist them into a pretzel if they tried to

Oh, and most importantly: cheaters do get what's coming to them. Parents, tourney directors and coaches quickly learn who is a great sportsman/woman, and who is not. Seen it numerous times, and you'll really see this in the bigger tennis areas like Florida and California where even if your kid loses to a cheater, an academy director or coach will talk to your kid about an offer instead. That is not uncommon; no one wants to be associated with a cheater. The thing about college tennis is since many kids are international, that's a lot harder to screen for the non-US students.

Nothing changes if nothing changes. It's very distressing, to be sure---but suggest you get used to it because it might be hard to believe but it is true: this goes on at every single one of the higher level tournaments.

Yes, my kids are new to competitive tennis and I'm beginning to see that tennis is very adversarial, dog-eat-dog, win at all costs. No wonder there's so much cheating, bad behavior and mind games. It starts when young and goes all the way to the pros, and vice versa - kids pick up what the pros do and think it is cool to throw tantrums, smash racquets and yell at umpires.

Many of you say the bad behavior is common, and is even worse than what I've witnessed. Question to you is - will you perpetuate the normal or go against the crowd and do the right thing? Why can't players treat each other with respect and consideration while still playing their best tennis? Does common decency and manners get left on the sidelines during the game?

I am sorry you had witnessed bad children and parents' behavior early. I have attended from junior team tennis to national level 1 tournament matches,...between the 2 daughters, about 10 years now.
Here is my 2 cents:

1. Crying when lost are commonly seen when they are younger. Tennis match can put a lot of pressure on individual youngster. Parent-child competition or team tennis is a good start for less pressure competition.

2. Cheating occurs at every level but it is not that bad. You also see a lot of great tennis gestures and etiquette at every level ie. clapping at your opponent's great shot, handshake at the end win or lose because both sides had tried their best, etc.

Teach children to follow the right examples.

3. My observation is kids who cheated and would not tell the truth when being confronted......often ended up losing the next point.
Guilt played a role in that.

However, I had seen bad ones that would lie or make up stories about the points won when asked by ref, changing scores, etc. Those are "pathological liar" and they will have problems in their lives in the future.
Better be someone else's kids than yours!

Teach your children to try their best and to win "fair and square".
Btw, finals in high level tourneys have chair umpires. Cheaters cannot cheat their ways to the top.

4. Parents misbehavior is everywhere and in every sport. I do not think tennis is worse. Parents should all try to behave and set good examples for the children.

5. Parent coaching happens at every level. If you see it, confront the person or tell the ref.

just a tiny bit of olive oil, three slices of the best tomatoes, one slice of red onion and some freshly ground black pepper.

I was thinking how 'down to a science' the hooking is in college ball. Seems like the coaches know it, too, the way the players hook on the far line but not on the line the chair can see. If they devoted some of their court sense to playing rather than hooking, I think it would just about even out.
Officials seem so tuned out of it, too, almost like they are bought and paid for. I'm not 'officially' sayin' that, naturally. Just what it looks like sometimes.